Season stories, legends, venues and owners from Broncos history.
Regular-season stats. Seasons are labeled by the year they started (the 1997 season ended with Super Bowl XXXII in January 1998). Win % counts ties as half a win. Sacks became an official NFL stat in 1982; 1970-81 figures are the team's own counts and none are listed before 1970. Sources: 2026 Denver Broncos Media Guide, cross-checked with Pro-Football-Reference.
Beat the Carolina Panthers 24-10. Feb. 7, 2016, at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Von Miller forced two fumbles.
“This one's for Pat!”
Trailing in the fourth quarter, Denver forced a fumble and drove for C.J. Anderson's go-ahead touchdown.
Denver hit Tom Brady 20 times and stopped the tying two-point try with 12 seconds left.
Von Miller's strip-sack of Cam Newton was recovered by Malik Jackson for a touchdown, and a second strip set up the clinching score.
“If I could cut this award, I would give it to DeMarcus Ware and Derek Wolfe and all the other guys.”
Beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-19. Jan. 31, 1999, at Pro Player Stadium in Miami. John Elway threw for 336 yards in his final game.
“Anybody can stop the run if they put enough guys up there. I was kind of looking forward to the opportunity.”
Davis ran for 199 yards, Denver outrushed Miami 250-14, and Neil Smith returned a fumble 79 yards for a touchdown.
Down 10-0, Denver forced six turnovers and scored 23 straight points.
Elway hit Rod Smith for an 80-yard touchdown and passed for 336 yards in his last NFL game.
“If you're going to go out, what a way to go out.”
Beat the Green Bay Packers 31-24. Jan. 25, 1998, at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Terrell Davis scored the winning touchdown with 1:45 left.
“This one's for John!”
Terrell Davis ran for 184 yards as Denver avenged its 1996 playoff upset with 310 rushing yards.
Davis's second 1-yard touchdown, in the fourth quarter, beat the top-seeded Chiefs at Arrowhead.
Elway threw two second-quarter touchdowns for a 24-14 halftime lead, and the defense held on at Three Rivers.
Davis scored with 1:45 left, and John Mobley broke up Brett Favre's fourth-down pass to end it.
“I can't believe this. This is three times better than anything you can imagine.”
“Anything is possible ... and I think I proved that today.”
Seasons are labeled by the year they started. Sources: Pro-Football-Reference, NFL.com, DenverBroncos.com, AP and Wikipedia; each quote links to where it was published.
Documentary · Denver Broncos Archive
NFL Films on the Orange Crush defense that carried Denver to its first Super Bowl.
Game · NFL
Elway's 98-yard march in Cleveland to tie the AFC Championship Game, then win it in overtime.
Game · NFL Throwback
The upset of the defending champion Packers for Denver's first Lombardi Trophy.
Play · Denver Broncos
Elway looks back on the spinning third-down dive that defined Super Bowl XXXII.
Documentary · NFL Films
A Football Life on TD's 2,008-yard MVP season, the engine of the second title run.
Game · NFL Throwback
Elway wins MVP in his last game as Denver goes back-to-back.
Play · Denver Broncos
The first snap of overtime ends the '3:16 game' against Pittsburgh.
Game · NFL Throwback
Opening night of the season Manning set the NFL record with 55 TD passes.
Game · NFL Throwback
Von Miller and the No Fly Zone defense beat Carolina, and Manning goes out a champion.
Montage · Denver Broncos
Sights and sounds from the 2025-season divisional win that sent Denver to the AFC Championship Game.
Videos are hosted on YouTube by the channels shown and play here through YouTube's player. If a channel removes a video, it will stop playing.
QB · 1960–63
Denver's first quarterback. Threw for 3,038 yards and 24 TDs in the first season, and his 447-yard game at Buffalo in 1962 stood as the club record until 2000.
CB · 1963–66
First-team All-AFL in 1964, when he picked off 9 passes. Went on to a Hall of Fame career with the Raiders.
RB · 1967–75
The first No. 1 draft pick ever to sign with Denver. Led the NFL in rushing in 1971 and retired seventh in league history in rushing yards.
S · 1969–81
A 13-year fixture in the secondary who started 156 straight games from 1971 to 1981, a club record at the time.
LB · 1974–83
Heart of the "Orange Crush" defense and the 1978 NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Led the team in tackles every season from 1975 to 1983.
QB · 1977–82
Arrived in a trade and led the Broncos to their first Super Bowl in his first season. Threw for 3,195 yards in 1981.
S · 1981–94
Hard-hitting safety who played 184 games for Denver across three Super Bowl seasons.
QB · 1983–98
Five Super Bowl starts and back-to-back titles, capped by the Super Bowl XXXIII MVP in his final game. Holds the NFL record with 47 fourth-quarter or overtime game-winning or game-saving drives.
DE/LB · 1985–95
Never missed a game: 172 in a row. Led the Broncos in sacks for seven straight seasons (1988-94).
S · 1989–98
First-round pick who became the most feared hitter of his era and a key part of both Super Bowl title teams.
TE · 1990–99, 2002–03
A seventh-round pick who retired as the NFL's all-time leader among tight ends in catches, yards and TDs. Won two Super Bowls in Denver.
T · 1993–97
Acquired from Minnesota, started all 76 games he played for Denver and anchored the line for the Super Bowl XXXII title.
RB · 1995–2002
A sixth-round pick who ran for 2,008 yards and was NFL MVP in 1998, after being named Super Bowl XXXII MVP.
LB · 1999–2006
Longtime defensive captain and five-time Pro Bowl middle linebacker.
CB · 2004–13
The first Broncos defender voted into the Hall of Fame. Had 10 interceptions in 2006 and a 100-yard return against New England in the January 2006 playoffs.
S · 2004–07
Made the Pro Bowl in all four of his Denver seasons.
S · 2009–11
Finished his career in Denver with two Pro Bowls and second-team All-Pro honors in 2009.
WR · 2010–18
Caught the overtime TD that beat Pittsburgh in the 2011 playoffs, then posted five straight 1,000-yard seasons, including a club-record 1,619 yards in 2014.
OLB · 2011–21
2011 Defensive Rookie of the Year and Super Bowl 50 MVP. The franchise's career sacks leader.
QB · 2012–15
Wore Tripucka's No. 18 with his blessing. Set NFL records with 5,477 yards and 55 TDs in 2013 and won Super Bowl 50 in his final game.
OLB · 2014–16
Team captain in each of his three Denver seasons and a key part of the Super Bowl 50 defense.
S · 2016–23
Led the Broncos in interceptions five straight years (2019-23).
CB · 2021–present
Shutdown corner and the 2024 NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
Placed by the year each player joined the Broncos. Stats are with Denver. Sources: 2026 Denver Broncos Media Guide (retired numbers, Hall of Fame and Ring of Fame profiles, team records) and the Season Stories data.
Win % counts ties as half a win. Seasons are labeled by the year they started. Sacks were not tracked before 1970. ★ championship season
The 1960 Broncos saved money with secondhand uniforms from a defunct college all-star game: mustard-yellow and brown, with vertically striped socks. In 1962 new coach Jack Faulkner switched to orange and blue and burned the old uniforms in a public bonfire at the training-camp scrimmage in Golden, to cheers from the crowd.
Source: denverbroncos.com
On Aug. 5, 1967, the Broncos beat the Detroit Lions 13-7 at DU Stadium, the first time an AFL team had beaten an NFL team. Lions star Alex Karras had said beforehand that if Denver won, he'd walk back to Detroit. He did not make the walk.
Source: denvergazette.com
Mile High Stadium's east stands weighed nearly 9 million pounds and could slide about 145 feet to switch between football and baseball. Crews pumped water into bearings underneath so the stands rode on a film of water about a third of an inch thick while hydraulic rams pushed them.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Season-ticket holder Tim McKernan first wore a barrel to a game in 1977 on a $10 bet with his brother that it would get him on TV. He wore one through 2007, became the first Broncos fan in the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Hall of Fans, and sold his signed Super Bowl XXXII barrel for $30,000.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
On July 14, 1979, Broncos defensive end Lyle Alzado, a former Golden Gloves boxer, fought Muhammad Ali in an eight-round exhibition at Mile High Stadium in front of about 20,000 fans. The bout wasn't scored; Ali got the unofficial nod.
Source: denverbroncos.com
The Baltimore Colts drafted John Elway first overall, and he threatened to play for the Yankees instead. The threat was real: he'd hit .318 in Class A the summer before. On May 2, 1983, Baltimore traded him to Denver.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
In a Monday night blizzard against Green Bay, Denver returned fumbles for touchdowns on the Packers' first two plays from scrimmage, going up 14-0 just 37 seconds in. Barefoot kicker Rich Karlis added a field goal in the snow and Denver won 17-14.
Source: weather.com
At the end of the first half against Jacksonville, a delay-of-game penalty pushed Jason Elam's 58-yard try back to 63 yards. He made it anyway, tying the NFL record for the longest field goal.
Source: deseret.com
Tim Tebow beat Pittsburgh in overtime of a January 2012 playoff game with an 80-yard touchdown to Demaryius Thomas on the first play of OT. He finished with 316 passing yards and 31.6 yards per completion, exactly three years after wearing 'John 3:16' on his eye black in a college title game.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
On Nov. 29, 2020, all four Broncos quarterbacks were ruled out under COVID-19 protocols. Practice-squad receiver Kendall Hinton, a former college quarterback, started against New Orleans. He completed 1 of 9 passes and Denver lost 31-3.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Each story was checked against at least one published source, linked on its card. Where a story is disputed, the card says so.
Built next to the old Mile High Stadium and opened with a 31-20 Monday Night Football win over the New York Giants on Sept. 10, 2001.
Opened in 1948 as Bears Stadium for minor-league baseball. Its movable east stands slid 145 feet on a thin sheet of water to switch between football and baseball. The Broncos sold out 237 straight regular-season games there from 1970 to 2000.
Hosted the Broncos' home openers in 1962 and 1963 (1-1).
Sources: 2026 Denver Broncos Media Guide (stadium history, first and last games, capacities, record); Empower Field capacity, cost and surface from the stadium's published facts.
Rob Walton, Carrie Walton Penner and Greg Penner (controlling owner and CEO since Oct. 2023)
The Walmart heirs' group bought the Broncos from the Bowlen Trust for a then-record $4.65 billion. After a rough first season they hired Sean Payton, and in 2025 the Broncos went 14-3 and reached the AFC Championship Game.
“We are grateful for the support and trust of the National Football League and the 31 other teams with today's vote.”
Record covers completed seasons (2022-2025).
Run by trustees Joe Ellis (president and CEO), Rich Slivka and Mary Kelly
After Pat Bowlen stepped away because of Alzheimer's disease, his trust ran the team. It won Super Bowl 50 early on, but the plan to name one of Bowlen's children as controlling owner never reached a consensus, and in 2022 the trustees sold the team.
“This one's for Pat!”
“Whoever emerges as the new owner will certainly understand what the team means to our great fans and this community.”
Bowlen remained owner of record through the trust until his death in June 2019.
Majority owner, president and CEO
Bowlen bought control from Edgar Kaiser Jr. and ran the Broncos for three decades. His teams reached six Super Bowls on his watch and won back-to-back titles, and he led the push for the stadium that opened in 2001.
Honors: Pro Football Hall of Fame (2019); Broncos Ring of Fame (2015)
“This one's for John!”
“I want us to be number 1 in everything.”
Seasons credited through 2013, when he last ran the team. Many sources also credit Super Bowl 50 to his ownership.
Majority owner
The Vancouver industrialist bought the team from the Phipps family and quickly remade the front office. His short run is remembered for bringing in coach Dan Reeves and quarterback John Elway.
“We needed a young organization and we need young men.”
Majority owners
The Phipps brothers bought control for about $1.5 million and kept the team from moving to Atlanta. Over 16 years the Broncos went from an AFL also-ran to a sellout draw and reached their first Super Bowl.
Honors: Gerald Phipps: first non-player in the Broncos Ring of Fame (1985)
“No Gerry Phipps, no Broncos”
Local ownership syndicate; the Phipps brothers were the largest shareholders
A group of Denver businessmen bought the Broncos and the Denver Bears from the Howsams. The team kept losing money, and by early 1965 the group was weighing a sale to buyers in Atlanta.
Founder
Howsam, who owned the minor-league Denver Bears, got Denver into the new American Football League as a charter member and played at his family's Bears Stadium. After one season and heavy losses, the family sold.
Honors: Colorado Sports Hall of Fame
“played a very important part in the founding of this great franchise, at the very beginning of the American Football League”
Records are regular-season results for the seasons credited to each owner (whoever owned the team for most of a season gets it). Sources: team histories, AP/UPI, Denver Post, SABR, Sports-Reference and Wikipedia; each quote links to where it was published.